“I hate these blurred lines. The way you grab me … must wanna get nasty.”
Robin Thicke sings these words repeatedly in his song “Blurred Lines.” To me, Thicke's lyrics sound like a rapist's defense in court, yet this song has been viewed more than 300 million times on YouTube and is the...

It's been a few months since Seth MacFarlane's "We Saw Your Boobs" song received applause at The Oscars. The song, which has been widely called a sexist and immature attempt to draw attention to various actresses who have been seen topless in movies, earned Seth an invitation to ...

On Sunday, July 22nd, 2012, an openly lesbian woman from Nebraska was tied down by three masked men who proceeded to carve derogatory language onto her body with a knife. Then, with her still bound and gagged in the next room, they poured gasoline around her house and tried to set it on fire. While ...

Fifty-one-fifty. In California, it was the law. It meant the state could lock me away for at least 72 hours if I could not put on a good enough show to convince them I was getting better.
The Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital was a place to dump screwed-up teens like me. Everyone there was dragged...

I have worked to make schools safe for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) youth for the past three years. Initially, my own coming out experience as a lesbian teen motivated me to make schools more welcoming for gay teens. I still have the journal entry I wrote the day I knew I was a les...

Steel drums echo in my ears. The drummers – standing proudly atop the forty-foot trailer covered in antique circus décor – don't even look up as they concentrate on the rhythms. They focus on each note, the corners of their lips turned slightly downward and their brows furrowed with lines of de...

Abby turned the black plastic rook over in his sunburned hand, running his fingers over the serrated top of the castle-shaped chess piece. A tall boy for his age, Abby had blond hair and brown eyes that looked green when he wore light shirts.
You’re gonna lose everything.
Abby tossed the ro...

She keeps her head bowed low as she approaches the wall. Most think she is praying and turn away to look back at their reflections on the black stone. Only she knows she keeps her head bowed so they can’t see her tears.
The path is long and stretches far ahead of her. She suddenly becomes tired...

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